I'm Not Ashamed of You
by CrispyBaconbits
Summary: An old high school friend causes a rift in Troy and Annie's relationship.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I know most people are about Jeff and Annie, but my number 1 ship is always gonna be Troy and Annie. My two favourite characters deserve to have fics written about them! Also, it's fun delving into the past of the characters. Enjoy and review, like always!

* * *

Annie opened up the fridge and sighed in frustration. Of course they were out of milk. Troy and Abed downed the stuff like it was going to expire within the hour. She looked over at the list beside the fridge even though she knew what it would say.

_Thursdays_

_Dishes: Abed_

_Groceries (if needed): Annie_

Annie groaned. She knew Troy and Abed weren't doing this on purpose, but it seemed like every day grocery shopping was required was a Thursday. She shook her head, grabbed her coat and headed towards the door.

"Grocery shopping?"

Annie turned around to see Troy, who had emerged from the blanket fort where he was probably hiding from her wrath after she discovered the lack of milk. "Yes, Troy. I am going grocery shopping, because we seem to be out of milk _again_." Troy looked guilty. "Annie, I'm sorry. It's just, sometimes me and Abed get carried away when we try to see who can finish an Oreo faster. It starts as best of three, but then we always end up tying on the last round, so we do best of five and so on." Annie huffed in annoyance. "Another thing we never have. I live here too y'know. And I like Oreos as much as the next person!" She pouted and turned to leave, when Troy called out to her again. "Annie wait!" She turned around again, looking irritated. Troy smiled at her. "Maybe I could go with you? I've got no chores to do anyway; it's my day off. I also feel kinda bad about doing this to you every week. Plus, the two of us don't hangout alone that often. Could be fun?" Annie was still a little peeved at Troy, but couldn't say no to having company while she was grocery shopping. And she appreciated that her roommate at least knew he was being a little inconsiderate. She smiled back at him.

"I guess you're right. Alright, let's go."

Annie was happy that Troy was accompanying her. By the time they had reached the bottom of their building, she had completely forgotten why she was mad at him in the first place and was thoroughly enjoying gossiping with him about the group. This kept up for the ride there, and even when they were in the store. That's what Annie loved about Troy; there was never a dull moment with him. He was always entertaining and could always keep up a conversation.

"-it's crazy right?"

Annie was startled slightly from her thoughts as she looked up from the milk to face Troy. "I'm sorry, what were you saying Troy?"

"I was just saying how insane it is that Shirley is still trying to sneak me brownies into my locker at school. I guess she thinks I'm weak or something; like my brownie resolve will break if more keep appearing in my locker. The worst part is...I think she might be right."

Annie laughed, "You can't give her the satisfaction of eating one Troy! We all made a pact to not indulge in them. If she notices that we like them then we'll never be able to get her to cut down on her baking!" Troy pouted. "I know...but they're just so good! And I think they're getting better too. This morning, I saw a new one that had chocolate chips in it. How does she even know my combination?" Annie thought for a moment before answering him. "Well it's 4 numbers, so if I had to take a wild guess I would say your combination is '1254'." Troy looked at her dumbfounded. She grinned mischievously at him before breaking into laughter. "How did you do that?" Annie found her milk and went back to pushing the cart towards the produce section, with Troy following beside her. "Troy, I just thought about the alphabet. 1254 spells 'ABED'. It doesn't take a genius. Speaking of which, you might want to tell Abed to change his combination, and you should do the same." Troy huffed in mock annoyance, and she just laughed at him.

They went back to looking through the produce. Annie didn't know what she wanted to pick out. They had a budget, so they usually only opted to get one kind of fruit for the week. Annie liked apples, Troy liked bananas, and Abed like anything. For some reason though, Annie felt like trying out something new for the three of them. "What fruit do you want for this week, Troy? I'm thinking of trying something different like-"

"As long as it's fruit, you of all people can't go wrong."

Both Annie and Troy turned around. Annie instantly grew self conscious. Standing before them was the head cheerleader back at Riverside High, Trish Davidson. She was probably one of the most popular girls back in high school, and also the reason why Annie was kicked off the team. To Annie's chagrin, Trish still looked perfect. Her long blonde hair was tied into a ponytail and she had just the right amount of makeup on. As hard as she looked, Annie couldn't find anything wrong with Trish. She glanced over at Troy, who (to her annoyance) was practically drooling over Trish.

"Trish Davidson? Man, I haven't see you in forever! You look...great. How ya been?"

Trish walked up to Troy and enveloped him in a brief hug, which he seemed to love a little too much. "Troy Barnes! You're looking good! I haven't really been doing anything too important. Not since I got accepted to Colorado University." Annie felt anger burn inside her. She was suddenly incredibly jealous of Trish's ability to make it into a prestigious and legitimate school, while she went to _Greendale_. Not to mention the fact that the girl still hadn't acknowledged Annie's presence, except for the snide remark that she had directed towards her about 2 minutes ago. She knew that when it did happen though, it wouldn't be nice.

"Wait, why are _you_ hanging out with Annie Adderall?"

There it was.

Troy frowned a little at the nickname, which Annie appreciated. _She has no idea how much Troy has grown up._

"Hey Trish, it's just Annie now alright?"

Trish looked stunned. "Hold on. You two are friends now? Damn, what happened Troy?" Annie was fuming at this point, and glared at Trish. "He got to know me, that's what happened! And he realized that I'm actually a good person, not the loser that you made me out to be in high school!" Trish simply raised an eyebrow at Annie, but otherwise didn't even flinch. "Oh, so it was me who labelled you as a loser? No hun, you did that yourself. That's how everyone saw you at Riverside. Just ask Troy." Troy looked uncomfortable now, so he decided to try and diffuse the situation.

"Girls, let's just calm down alright? Trish, Annie isn't a loser."

Trish looked over at Troy expectantly. He looked down at the floor.

"...anymore."

Trish smirked triumphantly at Annie. Annie didn't notice; she was too busy looking at Troy in disbelief. Had he really just done that? He was avoiding her gaze while Trish revelled in her victory. It felt like high school all over again. At that moment, she felt lower than dirt. It wasn't because of Trish making her look like an idiot again, but because Troy didn't really seem to care that she had done it in the first place. She thought they were best friends now. Feeling the tears begin to prick her eyes, Annie simply took a few too many apples began to walk away with her cart, towards the self checkout. Troy looked very guilty, and left hastily to catch up to her. Trish grinned sinisterly at them again before turning on her heel to walk in the other direction.

"Annie..."

"Shut up."

"Look, I'm sorry it's just-"

"Take these bags and get in the car."

"...alright."

The ride home was awful. Neither of them had said anything. It was definitely not as easygoing as the ride there. When they finally made it inside, Abed greeted them.

"Hey guys, how was grocery shopping?"

Annie didn't answer him as she threw the bags on the table and walked into her room, slamming the door. Abed raised his eyebrows at Troy, expectantly. "It's a long story man. I...screwed up."

Annie curled up on her bed and brought Ruthie to her chest. She couldn't believe Troy had done that to her. She was convinced that after 3 years he would have changed completely; it certainly seemed that way at least. But he hadn't changed at all; he was still the arrogant jock deep down, who cared more about his status than his actual friends. Worst of all, he was still embarrassed to be seen with her. Maybe that's why they never hung out by themselves often. She realized that she wasn't even angry per se, she was more ashamed.

And hurt.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** This chapter is all about Annie's rarely looked at, but painful high school memories. Reviews are welcome as always!

* * *

"Annie? Annie, come on...can you at least give me a chance to explain?"

"I don't think she wants to speak to you right now, Troy. Maybe you should try once she's calmed down a little bit?"

Troy sighed, "You're right, man. I'll just hang out in the blanket fort for a bit. Or maybe we could resume our invasion of the blorgons' mothership in the Dreamatorium?" Abed shook his head, "No thanks, I'm a little tired. I think I'm probably just gonna make a bowl of buttered noodles and call it a night." Troy raised an eyebrow at his friend but chose not to comment on it. "Alright man, I'll meet you in there." Abed nodded and simply replied, "Cool". With that, Troy ventured into the blanket fort while Abed started towards the kitchen. As soon as the blankets were closed however, he made a U-turn and went back to Annie's door. Knocking very lightly, he whispered through the door.

"Annie, it's Abed. Can I come in?"

He didn't hear a response, but a few seconds later the door slowly opened, revealing a very despondent looking Annie with her pajamas on. She gestured for him to enter, and then slowly closed the door once he was inside. She then flopped back on her bed buried her face back in her pillow. Abed just stood there for a moment, watching her.

"Troy still thinks I'm a loser."

Abed walked up to her bed and sat down on the edge of it. Annie removed her face from her pillows to look at him. She looked a bit teary eyed.

"No he doesn't," Abed reassured her.

"Yes he does! I mean, we're friends, but I'm pretty sure he'll always see me that way deep down. Even though it's been three years, to Troy I still seem like I'm the same nerdy girl he never bothered to take notice of in high school. He probably still doesn't think I could ever be more than that, even if he does appreciate it more now that we're friends."

She was sitting up now, holding one of her stuffed animals close to her chest and looking down at her sheets. Abed moved to sit next to her. "Well isn't it okay then? I mean, Troy still sees you as a friend. Aren't you happy about that?" Annie looked up at Abed, her eyes glazed with sadness. "That's not the point, Abed. I want him to see me as the friend that isn't the loser of the group. I want him to see me as..." Abed raised an eyebrow at her, "More than a friend?" Annie shook her head quickly, "No no! That's not it at all. I mean, it may have _used_ to be something along those lines, but now I just want to seem cool to him."

On some level, Abed sensed that there were unresolved feelings on Annie's end of her relationship with Troy, but he decided not to try and get that out of her now. What was important was making her feel better. "Annie, speaking as an observer I think Pierce fits the 'loser of the group' archetype way better than you do. You're pretty cool, but Troy just has some unresolved high school issues. If I had to guess, they probably revolve around that girl you saw today in the supermarket." Annie's face immediately scrunched up in disgust at the mention of the girl Abed was referring to.

"_I hate her." _

Abed noted the vileness in Annie's tone. He was surprised on a certain level; he had never heard her with such a distasteful tone in her voice before.

"Did something happen between you two?"

"You could say that."

"Want to talk about it?"

Annie seemed hesitant, but after seeing Abed's rather passive expression, she relaxed a little bit.

"Okay, but you can't mention this to anyone."

"Okay."

"You know how I was a cheerleader at my high school?"

"Troy mentioned it once or twice."

"He did?"

"Yeah. But I don't really know any details about it."

"Oh...well anyway, Trish was the head cheerleader on the squad. And she thought I was ugly and a terrible addition to the team, so she turned the rest of the girls against me."

"I see. Well that does suck. I know what that's like, having a bunch of people hate you. In high school, I was best friends with my locker. We spent a lot of time together."

"Oh, Abed..."

"Don't worry, I'm cool now. And I interrupted you, sorry."

"Oh, that's alright. Um...yeah so anyway, Trish and everyone else hated me on the cheerleading team. They did things like drop me during practice and purposely try and make me mess up our routines etc. But the amazing thing was that it always looked like it was my fault. Our coach thought I was completely helpless. Then one day..."

Abed simply stared at Annie, waiting for her to continue.

"Then one day they decided to humiliate me big time. We were doing a pyramid formation, which involves all of us holding up the other until one girl is at the top. Trish had convinced everyone else on the team that I should be the one at the top. I wasn't stupid; I knew something was up, but I just wanted to prove I could do it anyway. Plus it was our last football game of the season, and it was during halftime...Troy would be watching."

Annie went back to looking down at her sheets.

"So, everything was going well throughout the routine and I thought maybe the girls had just learned to accept me. I thought maybe this was their way of apologizing for the hell they put me through that year. Everything seemed perfect as I reached the top of the pyramid. Everybody was looking at me and smiling, and for the first time ever, Troy was noticing me. I remember feeling on top of the world for all of...5 seconds."

Abed raised an eyebrow again. "Then what happened?"

"They threw me."

Abed furrowed his brow in confusion. "Isn't that what's supposed to happen? I mean in all the teen comedies I've seen-"

"They're supposed to drop you into their arms. But they didn't. They threw me off the pyramid, and I landed in the wet, muddy football field. It hurt so much, but again, the cheerleading team looked like they had nothing to do with it. People thought I just lost my balance..."

Abed put his hand on Annie's shoulder, but she hadn't looked up at him. Her tone of voice had changed again, and now it sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"I looked up at the stands...everyone was laughing. Students, the cheerleading squad, Troy..."

Abed reached for her box of tissues on her end table and gave them to Annie. He wasn't super good at comforting people, but he at least knew how to handle crying.

"I remember Trish came to help me up, and whispered to me that I better not think of joining the team next year. After the whole incident happened, I spent all of my time at school doing the only thing I was good at – schoolwork. It wasn't long after this that I started taking Adderall. And it all came back to Trish. She's the reason I lost my scholarship and got kicked out of school, she's the reason I can't talk to my parents now, and she's the reason Troy _still _thinks I'm a loser. She stole a part of my life I can never get back, Abed!"

Annie unexpectedly flung her arms around Abed and started full on sobbing into his shirt. He held her while she cried for a couple minutes. He wanted to say something, but all he could say was "Annie, I'm sorry." It was funny...he'd been treated similarly in high school, and yet, he learned to change so that old memories wouldn't affect him. He assumed this was why he couldn't really connect with Annie right now. But someone who shared her painful memories might be able to. Someone who, even though they didn't know it at the time, contributed to how badly she screwed up. Someone who cared for Annie despite all this since he knew how many good qualities she still had once he finally got to know her. Annie _needed_ Troy.

Abed felt a small grin form on his face as he held a still crying Annie. He never thought he'd actually see "the jock and the geek" relationship take off in real life.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Sorry this took a while, I've been busy. I decided to get a bit of Troy's perspective on the situation before getting to the actual apology. Abed is a god.

* * *

Troy lay awake in the blanket fort waiting for Abed to return. It was taking an unusually long time, especially considering buttered noodles were _instant_. He wanted to try and talk to Abed about how to fix things with Annie. He knew that his best friend would be able to help him out here, since he was super good at reading people. While waiting for him to come back, Troy had taken it upon himself to try and come up with what exactly he was going to say to Annie when he apologized. He knew he screwed up pretty badly, and that a simple "I'm so sorry" wouldn't cut it. He needed to explain to her why he wanted to make Trish happy earlier that day.

The more he thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. Why did he decide to embarrass Annie in the supermarket today? He adored Annie; she was fun to be around but also kept Abed and himself in check while they lived together. He cared a lot for her, so why did he make her look like a complete idiot today to appease a girl he hadn't seen since high school?

_He hadn't seen her since high school._

Troy suddenly understood why he'd done that to Annie. Or at least he started to understand. He thought back to Riverside's last football game. He remembered the scout being there, looking for him on the field while Troy himself looked on from the bleachers. The scout had been so hopeful, so ready to hand out that scholarship...but Troy wasn't ready to accept it. A part of him knew that he probably could have gotten the scholarship, it wasn't _just_ pressure. It was the fact that he didn't want to move on from Riverside. He was afraid of not being the best anymore. People looked up to him at Riverside High, and to be honest, he loved it. Everyone at that school loved Troy Barnes and knew his name. The only one who didn't particularly care for him in high school was Trish Davidson. They were both at the top of the popular spectrum, but she didn't really talk to him. As a result, Troy had tried to impress her on many occasions. He had played extra hard in football games and asked her out on multiple occasions but she always played hard to get. But in the supermarket she had seemed very interested in him. Or maybe she wasn't; maybe Troy's mind was reading into things again. All he knew was that Trish was talking to him willingly for the first time, and he wanted to keep that going. At least he _did _want to keep that going, until he saw his best friend close to tears...

Troy tried to conjure up any memories that he had of Annie at Riverside. There weren't many, considering they probably hungout in different groups or something. The only lasting memory he had of her was her pill overdose and the image of her body flinging itself through a plate-glass door. But despite that scary thought, he had no real memories of Annie. Except for one...

He knew Annie was cheerleader at some point during high school. You would think that was all Troy needed to have a lasting memory of her, but she wasn't necessarily eye candy for him at the time. She didn't look as attractive as she did now; in fact, Troy often wondered how Annie even made it on the team in the first place. Of course, he wouldn't ask her that; she'd probably hate him even more for wondering. The bottom line though, was that Troy still had one memory of Annie when she was a cheerleader. He could have sworn it was her that fell off the pyramid at the last game, while everyone laughed at her covered in mud. But that meant...he had laughed with them. He remembered laughing and thinking it was incredibly funny at the time, but he also remembered Annie running off as fast as she could away from everyone, with tears streaming down her face. Troy began to feel increasingly terrible about the whole ordeal. But if it was her that fell off that pyramid, then that meant Annie was on the same team as Trish. Troy furrowed his brow. Maybe Trish had done something to Annie in the past while they were cheerleaders? While trying to piece together everything, Abed finally made his way back into the blanket fort, buttered noodles in hand. He looked to be thinking about something, and barely acknowledged Troy when he sat up in his bed.

"Abed, you took a while. Don't tell me we busted the microwave again."

Abed shook his head while climbing up onto the top bunk, "Nah, I just thought I'd try talking to Annie. She actually let me into her room."

Troy felt himself getting surprisingly annoyed at this new information. "So she let you in and not me? I'm the one who has to apologize to her!" Abed ate a mouthful of buttered noodles before responding to his friend. "Troy, she's pretty upset. Annie probably let me in because she wanted to talk to someone but couldn't talk to you yet. Don't worry, I'll tell you why she's so upset. It's better you hear it from me anyway. We can discuss how you're going to apologize to her."

"Yeah, I've actually been trying to come up with a way to say sorry. I just don't know where to start, y'know? It's like when the Inspector had to take care of the blorgons when they ambushed him and Constable Reggie in that alternate dimension, but he couldn't decide what to do because there were too many of them to disarm."

"So in your analogy, you don't know how to apologize to Annie since her reasons for being upset with you are like a legion of blorgons attacking you from an every direction?"

"Exactly!"

"That sounds pretty awesome."

"Yeah, we should definitely re-enact that in the Dreamatorium after all this."

"Totally. Although, your analogy isn't quite right. Annie's only really upset for one reason."

"She is?"

"Yeah. She thinks your ashamed to be her friend."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"But that's dumb! I mean, we've been friends for 3 years now!"

"Is it really dumb, Troy? I mean, look at your history from high school. You and Annie were on complete opposites of the popularity spectrum. You were the popular guy, and she was the nerdy outcast. It makes sense that you two weren't friends back then. The reason Annie is so upset is because she thinks that you would still never look at her the way you look at Trish."

"But I'm not ashamed of her! I never would be, Abed. She's awesome!"

"You know she's awesome now, but how about in high school?"

"I didn't really know her..."

"Would you have tried to get to know her?"

"Well...probably not. But we're still best friends now. And I love being with her."

"Then why couldn't you say that to Trish today instead of saying that 'she wasn't a loser _anymore_'."

"Well that's...it's complicated..."

"I don't really think it is, Troy. If I had to guess, you liked Trish in high school, but she wouldn't date you. And being the star quarterback of your football team, you couldn't accept that, so you decided to try and impress her."

"Damn you and your mind reading powers..."

"It's really not that complicated."

"I know! I know, alright Abed?"

"Troy, did you ever end up dating Trish?"

"No..."

"Ah. That explains it then."

"Explains what?"

"Why you acted the way you did in the supermarket today."

"And why is that?"

"You still feel the need to impress Trish, even after all these years. Either your harboring feelings for her, or you just want to seem cool to her. Probably also why you didn't want to seem too close to Annie either."

"...How did you figure that out so fast? I've literally been laying here for like an hour trying to figure it out."

"I think you already knew, Troy."

"Yeah, maybe..."

"So then why did you feel so terrible immediately after you made Trish happy?"

"Because..."

"Come on, Troy."

"...because Annie means more to me."

"There ya go. Now all you have to do is figure out why."

"I think...I know that already."

"Then tell her. Tomorrow. That's your apology."

"Wow. You wrinkled my brain, Abed."

Abed climbed down from the bunk bed, holding the now empty bowl in his hands.

"I know, Troy. And sorry for seeming like I was interrogating you. But at least now you know what to say to Annie."

"You're right man, thanks."

Abed left for the kitchen, and Troy lay back down on his bed. He felt better now about the whole apology. Now he could at least spend the rest of the night coming up with a decent apology for Annie.

One that proved he wasn't ashamed of her.

Abed walked towards the kitchen meanwhile, while smiling to himself and humming 'Daybreak'. Now that he had talked to both Annie and Troy, all he had to do was sit back and watch the events unfold.

He was really looking forward to tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

Troy woke up early the next morning, so that he could be alone with Annie while Abed was still asleep. He knew Annie always woke up before him and Abed, which was something he was grateful for. She usually made them some sort of breakfast, or at least a pot of coffee; he never admitted to her that both he and Abed had no idea how to make it. It was one of the many things Troy admired about living with Annie, which made him feel even guiltier about yesterday. But none of that mattered anymore; Troy had spent a fair amount of time getting ready for his apology to Annie with the help of Abed last night. He felt confident that things would go well now.

When he left the blanket fort, Annie was already all dressed and ready to start the day. He how no idea how she even functioned right now, especially since it was 7:30am on a Saturday. She turned around with a smile on her face, but it soon fell when she saw it was Troy. She abruptly turned back to the stove before finally addressing him.

"I'm making pancakes, do you want some?"

Troy scratched the back of his head awkwardly, "Uh...yeah. That'd be great. Thanks a lot." Annie still hadn't turned around and stood idly at the stove facing the wall. She hadn't replied to him. Troy went over to the fridge and poured himself a glass of orange juice before going to the table to wait for Annie to bring him pancakes. He figured if she sat down to eat with him they'd be forced to talk about what happened.

But to his annoyance, Annie simply put the plate of pancakes on the counter before going back to the solitude of her room. Troy huffed in frustration. _This is getting ridiculous. _He downed the rest of his orange juice and walked towards Annie's now closed bedroom door. Hesitating slightly for a moment, Troy knocked on the door. He heard Annie's voice through the door.

"Go away, Troy."

"Annie, can I please talk to you?"

"Shouldn't you be in bed? You're never up this early."

"I know. I don't even understand how you can be up at this time every day."

"Maybe you can go laugh about it with Trish."

"Annie..."

"Your pancakes are getting cold."

Troy was beginning to get very irritated by Annie shutting him out. How was he supposed to apologize to her if she wouldn't even give him the chance?

"Annie, I'm trying to apologize to you. C'mon, please let me in?"

"We can talk later."

"No. I want to talk now."

"Well I don't."

"Well, you're going to have to leave your room at some point, so I'll wait right here until this door opens."

"Be my guest."

Troy sighed in disappointment, but was determined to hammer this out as quickly as possible. He wanted his Annie back. So, he sat against the wall beside her door and pulled out his phone to play games on it. Abed soon emerged from the blanket fort, still looking rather sleepy. Taking one look at Troy and the pancakes on the counter, he seemed to understand the situation completely. He turned to grab a plate and a couple pancakes, before going to his recliner and putting on a rerun of Inspector Spacetime. Troy just frowned at him, but watched anyway from his uncomfortable position on the floor.

His recliner never looked so enticing.

Troy's back was killing him. He had been waiting for 2 hours for Annie to emerge from her room. In that time, Abed had cleaned up the kitchen and did the dishes, spent a little time in the Dreamatorium and had since gone out to "run some errands". Troy didn't know what that meant, considering it was Abed and he didn't think his friend really ever had anything to take care of on a Saturday if it didn't revolve around watching movies or the annihilation of blorgons.

Finally, Troy heard the sweet sound of Annie's door opening. He struggled a tiny bit to get back onto his feet and face her. She had a look of complete shock on her face.

"You...you actually waited?"

Troy smirked at her. "I told you I would, didn't I?" He saw a small smile form on Annie's lips and she looked down at the ground.

"Troy..."

He took a moment to crack his back and massage his neck a bit before directing his attention back to Annie.

"So, ready to have that talk?"

She nodded and walked back into her room. Troy followed, closing the door behind him. It was weird; he had thought of exactly what to say to Annie, but now after finally getting the chance he was drawing a blank. Annie was looking at him expectantly, her brow slightly furrowed. Troy looked around her room for a moment, trying to come up with a way to break the ice between them. Not long after, he spotted it. He walked up to her dresser, picking up the small picture frame she had displayed there. It was of the three of them when she had moved in. Troy smiled at the memory of that day. He still had his green "#Annie's Move" t-shirt in his dresser.

"This was a good day."

"It had its ups and downs."

"Yeah, but it ended on a good note."

"Yeah."

Troy moved to sit on Annie's bed next to her.

_Here goes nothing._

"Annie, I'm so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, that's not completely true. I _did _know what I was thinking..."

Annie huffed in annoyance. Damn. This was a bad start. Troy mentally smacked himself and started over.

"Okay Annie. I _did_ know what I was doing yesterday, but there's something you gotta understand about me. When we went to Riverside, I was popular. I couldn't help that, but what I could do was try and still be a good person. But...I wasn't. Instead, I spent every day trying to maintain my image. I honestly didn't know who you were, and to be honest that kinda sucks because I would've known how great of a person you are. But it was high school, Annie. I was a stupid jock who only cared about his status. And every single day I tried to get that status even higher. I wanted to the best, in every sense of the word. And...naturally, that made me want to date Trish. She was probably the only girl who ever rejected me at Riverside, and I just couldn't handle it."

"So that excuses what you did yesterday?"

Troy shook his head quickly. "No! No, Annie. Absolutely not. There's no excuse for what I did yesterday. I was a huge jerk...and I don't even know why I did it. But I want you to know that what I said wasn't true at all. At Riverside, everyone always told me that you were a loser, but I honestly didn't see it. But I...I didn't want to be seen with you. I thought it would tarnish my image. But like I said, you were probably awesome in high school. You were probably just as awesome as you are now. And if I could do it over and get to know you, I would. I would do it in a heartbeat, Annie."

Annie's frown slowly faded and a small smile came to her lips. Troy felt a great deal of stress being lifted after seeing her smile.

"You really mean that, Troy?"

"A hundred percent."

Annie wrapped her arms around Troy and relaxed into his arms. He reciprocated, and noticed that she smelled like strawberries. He found himself enjoying the scent much more than he usually did. He also realized though that Annie seemed to be very tired. He guessed this whole thing had taken its toil on her. This made him feel guilty once more. He realized he never wanted to upset Annie again.

"I'll never do anything to hurt you again. Screw high school, it means nothing. My status there means nothing now either. And neither does Trish."

Troy pulled away and held up the picture from her dresser.

"These are the only people that matter to me now Annie."

"Troy..."

"So...are we good?"

She smiled at him.

"Yeah. We're good."

"Awesome. So...I didn't really eat yet and I am starving. Wanna grab some pancakes?"

Troy had gotten up, but Annie remained on her bed. She looked to be thinking about something.

"Um...Troy can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"It's just...did you know I was on the cheerleading team in Riverside?"

"I do now. Since were friends now. I recognize you from the-"

Troy stopped himself, but it was too late. Annie looked down at her sheets.

"I thought so."

"Annie...that doesn't mean anything now."

Annie sighed.

"I know...it's just...seeing Trish yesterday kinda brought up all those memories."

"Oh. Well you couldn't help it if you lost your balance-"

"I didn't!"

Troy's eyes widened.

"Wait, what?"

"Trish and the other girls threw me..."

"Holy crap, Annie! That really sucks...wow..."

"Yeah."

Troy felt anger suddenly towards Trish. He couldn't believe he even cared enough to try and get her attention.

"They're bitches."

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you quit?"

"I wanted to, but my mom convinced me to stay on the team. Besides, I wanted you to notice me."

"Annie..."

"I guess it _did_ end up working in the end. Even though the thought of us together was pretty ridiculous."

"I feel like a huge jerk. I mean, if you were anything like the way you are now, I probably would've really liked you."

"Except I was ugly..."

Troy felt himself getting more upset. He wanted to defend Annie, even though she was the one attacking herself.

"No you weren't! I mean...Trish and the other girls made you out to be a lot worse than you were. If you even looked remotely close to how you look now, you would've been really pretty."

Annie let out a small giggle of doubt.

"You're sweet Troy, but I really wasn't."

"Well even if you weren't, I would've totally still been friends with you. You're like the coolest girl I've ever met."

"Thanks, Troy."

She was smiling again, but she looked as though she still needed some reassurance.

"And for the record, I don't think the thought of us together is ridiculous."

"Troy?"

Troy was never a person to really think things through, but right now things just felt right anyway. He loved not having to think. He loved acting on impulse.

_He loved the smell of strawberries._

He looked over at Annie. She was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish his thought. But, unable to grasp the right words, Troy instead decided to make a bold move and press his lips against hers. Annie hesitated for a moment, before sinking into him. They kissed for about a minute, before Troy pulled away.

"Annie?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not ashamed of you. I never will be."


End file.
